Saluting rural teachers

Li Ling reads books with her students in Xuwan village, Zhoukou city. Chang Liang / for China Daily

A woman who started a school for migrant workers left-behind children in rural Henan has inspired the country. Zhang Yue reports in Beijing.

Many migrant workers' children from Henan province's Xuwan village are left behind - but, thanks to Li Ling, they're not left alone.

Upon discovering so many children stayed in the village while their parents work in cities when Li returned for holidays after graduating from a teachers' college in Zhoukou city in 2002, she gathered many of the children and began to teach them in her spare time.

She discovered many of the kids didn't go to school or kindergarten. Instead, the kids, who were ages 3-6, stayed home all day with their grandparents.

The situation is typical of the children of Henan's 15 million migrant workers and of those in the rest of the country.

Li says she was amazed at how the otherwise naughty children reacted when she opened their worlds by teaching them.

"Watching them become obedient and follow my lessons made teaching so exciting," she says.

After a month of teaching the village's children, Li was ready to job hunt in Zhoukou city. But the children protested her departure. They continued to gather at her house, even when she wasn't home.

"Who will to teach these kids if I leave?" Li thought.

That question has kept her in the village for the past decade.

"I work all day for the kids, especially those whose parents aren't around," she says.

Li founded a school for left-behind children in surrounding villages with her family's support in 2002. More than 300 students attended in the early days.

"Local kids usually missed school for two reasons," Li says.

"One is that their grandparents couldn't afford tuition. Another is that the kids were too young to go to school far from home."